1248 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
October  C,  1923 
Winter  and  protesting  against  salt  pork  and  corned 
beef  during  the  Summer  the  farm  boy,  as  well  as 
the  city  dweller,  can  now  choose  his  daily  diet  from 
a  wide  field  of  meat  products.  One  can  scarcely 
recognize  the  season  of  the  year  by  viewing  the 
vegetables  and  fruits  at  the  modern  grocery  store. 
There  is  no  season  for  lettuce,  or  strawberries,  and 
especially  for  fruits.  Storage  has  made  possible  an 
open  season  for  such  products. 
PACKAGES. — Consumers  will  pay  more  for  food 
in  packages.  They  like  butter  in  cartons  rather 
than  in  hulk,  and  the  pound  package  of  lard  has 
almost  replaced  the  traditional  lard  pail.  Eggs  in 
a  paper  sack  are  not  nearly  so  convenient  as  eggs  in 
a  carton.  We  find,  therefore,  that  effective  packing 
not  only  reduces  marketing  costs  but  that  standard¬ 
ization  of  the  various  products  increases  pi’ices 
more  than  any  other  service  that  the  merchant 
renders.  The  extension  of  trade  by  means  of  sam¬ 
ples  depends  almost  entirely  upon  grade  and  pack¬ 
age.  At  the  terminal  egg  and  butter  markets  ex¬ 
change  values  and  in  fact  the  whole  fabx-ic  of  financ¬ 
ing,  storage,  and  warehouse  receipts  are  based  on 
the  use  of  accepted  and  generally  recognized  grades. 
After  all.  intelligent  marketing  is  largely  a  matter 
of  knowing  what  the  people  want,  how  they  want 
it,  and  when  they  are  ready  to  buy. 
MARKET  INFORMATION.  —  A  knowledge  of 
markets  and  marketing  practices  is  quite  as  essen¬ 
tial  as  a  knowledge  of  varieties  and  successful  pro¬ 
duction  methods.  So  far  many  farmers  have  gone 
the  limit  on  production  only  to  face  disaster  when 
the  marketing  season  approaches.  This  is  what 
happened  to  the  potato  growers  last  year;  it  got 
the  wheat  farmer  this  year.  The  imminent  danger 
of  much  of  the  criticism  that  is  directed  toward 
middlemen,  railways,  storage  warehouses,  jobbers 
and  agencies  that  operate  in  the  marketing  field  is 
that  it  is  offered  free  hand,  often  prompted  by 
prejudice  and  frequently  proclaimed  without  defi¬ 
nite  knowledge  as  to  conditions.  Orderly  marketing 
of  any  farm  product  must  be  based  upon  extensive 
research.  Ample  consideration  must  be  given  to 
the  question  of  market  activities  and  the  interna¬ 
tional  crop  repoi’ts,  and  to  a  careful  study  of  the 
trend  of  price  fluctuations.  It  has  i*equired  years 
of  experiment  and  research  work  to  bi’ing  our  unit 
production  up  to  its  present  level,  and  it  is  only 
reasonable  to  believe  that  the  one  big  issue  facing 
the  present  generation  of  farmers  and  business  men 
is  to  do  for  the  distributor  what  they  have  done  for 
the  producei-.  This  involves  an  analysis  of  existing 
conditions  and  a  most  careful  and  extensive  study 
to  detennine  just  .what  methods  of  merchandising 
and  selling  are  best  suited  for  the  changed  condi¬ 
tions  that  affect  both  the  producer  and  the  con¬ 
sumer.  If  this  step  is  wisely  taken  and  if  the  agri- 
cultural  colleges,  expei’iment  stations,  and  various 
agencies  interested  in  agricultui’al  extension  will 
serve  the  public  as  intelligently  in  the  marketing 
field  as  they  have  in  the  pi’oducing  field  our  whole 
agricultural  industi’y  will  have  passed  from  the 
stage  of  depreciation  and  discontent  into  the  field  of 
happiness  and  prosperity. 
ORDERLY  MARKETING  is  the  business  end  of 
agriculture  and,  since  the  dairy  indus'ti-y  is  the 
barometer  of  prosperity,  it  becomes  all  the  more  im¬ 
portant  that  this  field  of  activity  should  be  given 
first  consideration  in  planning  research  work,  de¬ 
signed  to  unloose  the  marketing  tangle.  Educa¬ 
tion  rather  than  legislation  must  be  relied  upon  to 
solve  the  selling  and  merchandising  of  farm  prod¬ 
ucts.  Brains,  not  bricks,  must  predominate? 
F.  C.  MIN  KLEE. 
Has  Eastern  Dairying  A  Future? 
THE  question  often  arises  whether  we  should 
look  upon  the  future  of  eastern  dairying  with 
pessimism  or  optimism.  Many  people  say  dairying 
has  gone  West,  where  there  is  more  out  of  doors, 
where  industries  don’t  crowd  the  rural  districts.  To 
be  sure  dairying  has  gone  West.  It  of  necessity 
has  had  to  go  West  in  order  to  supply  the  growing 
demand  for  dairy  products. 
The  past  few  years  have  seen  a  decided  change 
in  l’ural  life.  Dairying  has  become  a  business,  and 
the  dairyman  does  not  have  to  do  a  day’s  work  be¬ 
fore  daylight  and  after  dark.  Dairying  has  an 
economic  importance,  not  only  in  eastern  agricul¬ 
ture  but  also  in  eastern  industrial  centers.  Eastern 
dairying  contributes  more  to  our  material  welfare 
than  many  of  us  believe.  The  dairy  industi’y  of 
the  East  supplies  not  a  small  part  of  the  $5,000,- 
000.000  annual  income  fi’om  dairy  px-oducts  in  the 
United  States.  Should  dairying  in  the  East  be  not 
maintained,  what  would  happen?  First,  milk,  for 
it  is  liquid  milk  in  the  majority  of  cases  that  comes 
from  our  eastern  dairy  farms,  could  not  be  had 
fresh  for  the  millions  of  people  who  consume  it 
daily.  We  have  but  recently  learned  the  absolute 
necessity  of  milk  in  the  human  diet.  Second,  high 
freight  rates  make  it  prohibitive  to  ship  liquid  milk 
from  the  West  to  our  eastern  industrial  cities,  and 
then  re-distribute  this  product  to  thousands  of 
smaller  towns.  Our  eastern  consumers  would  have 
to  pay  a  much  higher  price  for  milk.  Third,  possi¬ 
bly  two  million  dollars  worth  of  money  coming  from 
our  eastern  industry  and  spent  in  the  East  would 
only  naturally  be  created  in  the  West.  Fourth,  in¬ 
dustrially  the  dairy  industry  supports  and  maintains 
feed  dealers,  lumber  dealers  and  industrial  concerns 
without  number.  Remove  these  consumers  of  the 
dairymen’s  dollai’,  the  clothing  and  grocery  man 
would  suffer.  They  would  suffer  because  there  are 
millions  of  acres  of  dairy  land  in  the  East  adaptable 
to  no  other  farming  industry.  If  dairying  went 
out,  no  equally  remunerative  industry  could  replace 
it.  Fifth,  the  dairy  cow  is  the  cheapest  converter 
of  raw  products  of  the  farm  into  the  finished  prod- 
A  two-year-old  hen  boy,  Paul  C.  WhiCbeck  of  Albany 
County,  N.  Y.  He  feeds  the  young  stock,  but  is  hardly 
up  to  the  job  of  handling  eggs  yet. 
net.  At  the  same  time  she  produces  annually  ma¬ 
nure  to  keep  up  oixr  soil  fertility. 
Fi’om  the  standpoint  of  economy  of  production 
perhaps  the  western  dairyman  has  the  better  of  the 
easterner,  but  on  the  other  hand,  when  it  conies  to 
the  cost  of  marketing  and  distribution,  the  eastern 
dairyman  has  very  small  fi-eight  costs,  his  markets 
are  the  best  in  the  world,  .l’ight  at  his  door.  Emigra¬ 
tion  fi'om  our  Eastenx  States  to  the  Middle  and  Far 
West  caused  a  decline  in  eastern  agriculture,  and  in 
New  England  it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  abandoned 
farms.  Eastern  agriculture  is  coming  back.  Eastern 
dairying  will  be  maintained.  The  eastern  dairyman 
should  have  a  spirit  of  optimism.  Woi’king  for  his 
interest  he  now  has  strong  departments  of  agricul¬ 
tural  extension  in  our  high  schools  and  colleges. 
County  Farm  Bureaus  are  making  it  possible  for 
the  dairymen  to  market  their  milk  co-operatively. 
What  should  be  the  type  of  dairying  our  farmers 
should  follow  is  difficult  to  say.  Market  conditions 
will  more  or  less  govern  that,  however.  In  the  fii’st 
place,  there  is  still  room  for  economy  of  production. 
This  economy  must  come  through  more  efficient 
dairy  cows.  More  efficient  cows  only  can  be  de¬ 
veloped  fi’om  the  use  of  good  foundation  stock.  The 
percentage  of  purebred  to  grade  and  common  stock 
in  the  East  is  probably  less  than  2  per  cent.  There 
is  still  plenty  of  opportunity  for  breeders  of  pure- 
bi-ed  cattle  to  sell  surplus  stock.  The  seed  .stock 
of  our  purebred  industry  originated  as  a  result  of 
the  efforts  of  eastern  breeders  and  the  blood  of 
those  famous  old  cattle  are  still  in  demand. 
Our  marketing  conditions  have  been  changing 
during  the  past  few  years.  This  is  the  age  of 
specialization  in  every  branch  of  industry.  The 
public  demands  a  special  product ;  they  like  to  read 
a  special  label.  There  is  room  for  select  milk 
fi-oxn  each  bi’eed.  A  certain  group  of  our  con- 
sumers  demand  a  highly  colored  milk.  The  Guern¬ 
sey  and  Jersey  men  will  increase  their  output.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Holstein  and  Ayrshire  breedei-s 
through  publicity  can  sell  a  special  product.  Such 
special  brands  must  be  dependable  at  all  times,  their 
bactei’ia  count  must  be  below  the  average,  as  all 
of  this  commodity  will  be  used  for  drinking  pur¬ 
poses.  The  dairyman  who  lives  too  far  from  town 
to  produce  and  market  a  special  brand  has  the  ad¬ 
vantage  of  more  economical  cost  of  production  and 
while  he  will  not  receive  as  much  for  each  quart  he 
can  co-operatively  market  with  his  marketing  or¬ 
ganization  a  good  grade  of  milk  that  will  return 
him  a  steady  income  from  his  labors. 
JOHN  W.  BAETLETT. 
Successful  Farm  on  a  Hill  Top 
READ  in  The  R.  N.-Y.  about  crops  raised  in  the 
West  that  will  not  pay  for  the  gathering,  and 
are  left  to  rot  on  the  ground.  A  letter  I  have  re¬ 
ceived  from  a  Connecticut  farmer,  a  friend  of  mine 
for  many  years,  telling  of  the  production  of  his 
farm  up  here  in  the  hills,  where  he  is  973  ft.  up  in 
the  air,  though  less  than  50  miles  from  the  sea,  is  in 
such  striking  contrast  to  the  situation  in  the  West, 
that  I  think  it  well  worth  quoting. 
He  writes:  “I  got  $4  per  peach  basket  for  a  good 
many  of  my  eai’liest  tomatoes,  today  (August  21), 
I  took  in  two  solid  loads  and  part  of  a  third,  with 
two  loads  picked  ready  to  go  tomorrow.  We  also 
l’aise  the  best  head  lettuce  in  these  parts,  selling 
sometimes  50  dozen  a  day.  Last  Fall  after  it  had 
been  frozen  off  in  the  valley,  we  sold  for  a  month, 
loads  of  solid  lettuce.” 
There  is  a  great  advantage  in  being  up  on  the 
hills;  the  heavy  damp  air  drains  down  into  the  val¬ 
leys,  and  vegetation  is  killed  by  fi’ost  weeks  before 
it  is  on  the  hills.  He  writes :  “We  have  a  green¬ 
house  10x40  ft.  in  which  we  l-aise  Spring  plants. 
Start  a  fii’e  February  1,  raise  cabbage  and  lettuce 
plants;  February  20  start  tomatoes,  then  peppers, 
celei’y,  asters,  salvias,  beets.  I  had  10,000  beets  to 
transplant  for  eai’ly  beets,  and  sole  bunches  of  four 
beets  at  15  cents  a  bunch.  Then  I  sowed  2  lbs.  of 
beet  seed  for  the  regular  crop.  It  is  all  sold  and 
other  ci’ops  on  that  ground  now.  We  have  big  crops 
of  spinach ;  I  cut  three  bushels  off  a  strip  6x9  ft., 
equal  to  2,440  bushels  per  acre.  We  expect  to  have 
lettuce  to  sell  every  day  in  the  year,  and  sell  50 
dozen  a  day ;  sometimes  we  get  a  dollar  a  dozen.  We 
have  15,000  plants  out  now.  I  have  just  planted  18 
lbs.  of  spinach.  We  picked  as  high  as  29  bushels 
of  sti’awberries  in  a  day  this  year.  We  have  3.500 
peppers,  500  eggplants,  three-fourth  of  an  acre  of 
cucumbers  for  pickles  for  which  we  get  from  $1 
to  $2  per  100.  I  have  had  as  many  as  230,000  in  a 
year,  but  sold  at  a  much  less  pi’ice  then.  We  have 
3,000  late  cabbage  and  6,000  cauliflowers,  almost  an 
acre  of  bush  beans,  three-fourth  of  an  aci’e  of  bush 
Limas.  We  have  the  fii-st  squash  in  market,  started 
it  in  paper  pots,  then  put  in  soil  boxes  with  glass 
tops.  Early  cucumbers  the  -same  way.  •  The  first 
squash  brought  20  cents  per  pound  and  the  cucum¬ 
bers  10  cents  each.  That  was  velvet. 
“We  have  kept  Rhode  Island  Reds  for  10  years. 
Judge  Cai’d  judged  a  cock  bird  we  had  sold,  and 
said  it  was  the  best  male  R.  I.  Red  that  he  had  ever 
handled.  Last  year  we  sold  $3,500  worth  of  eggs 
and  poultry  and  deducting  labor,  feed  and  interest 
on  investment,  depi’eciation,  etc.,  the  net  profit  was 
$1,200.” 
Reading  my  fi-iend’s  letter  I  could  not  help  but 
be  struck  by  the  contrast  between  its  statements  and 
the  hard-luck  stories  of  the  Western  farmers.  But 
he  has  not  mentioned  the  best  crop  raised  on  this 
New  England  farm,  and  that  is  his  five  spleiidid 
children.  His  oldest  daughter,  a  trained  nurse, 
volunteered  and  went  aci’oss  the  seas  in  the  war 
time,  and  now  is  in  the  Yale  Hospital  in  Changshua, 
China,  teaching  Chinese  girls  to  be  nurses.  Another 
daughter,  the  baby,  walks  four  miles  to  high  school, 
eight  miles  a  day,  through  deep  snows  or  mud,  scorn¬ 
ing  to  ride,  though  they  have  a  car.  A  son,  who  is 
himself  a  father  of  three  boys,  has  charge  of  all  the 
boys’  and  girls’  clubs  in  the  State;  two  other  sons 
help  on  the  farm,  and  one  son  died  in  Storrs  Col¬ 
lege. 
When  a  Westei-n  magazine  offered  a  pi’ize  for 
the  best  answer  to  the  question :  “Would  you  de¬ 
sire  your  daughter  to  become  a  farmer’s  wife?  If 
so  why,  and  if  not,  why?”  it  was  the  mother  of 
these  children  whose  reply,  out  of  7,000  received, 
was  deemed  worthy  of  the  first  prize  of  $200,  which 
was  duly  paid  to  her.  Ninety  per  cent  of  the  replies 
were  in  the  affirmative,  as  was  the  winning  article. 
City  readers  of  The  Jt.  N.-Y.,  and  there  are  many, 
who  pity  farmers’  wives,  will  be  surprised  at  the 
above  statement,  but  it  is  time.  The  statements  in 
this  article  are  not  guesses  or  estimates.  They  are 
taken  from  i*ecords  made  in  the  day-book  of  the 
work  done  that  day. 
And  this  productive  land  has  been  farmed  for 
200  years !  geoege  a.  cosgbove. 
